You've got your photography staff ready to go to catch all the activities happening around your school, but before you send them on their way, take a few minutes to make sure the pictures they capture are going to be the best ever.

Here are some tips for working with your image tools:

YOUR DIGITAL CAMERA

• Learn the operation and settings before the action gets good.
• Use the highest resolution setting possible and take some test photos. Upload these to your site so you can check the Max Size, brightness settings, etc. You can always delete anything you don't want to use from your Image Library.
• Higher-resolution images will use more space on your card so make sure you have plenty of room or extra cards.

YOUR SCANNER

• Learn how to change the scanned resolution for photos and artwork. It should be set between 400 and 500 dots per inch (DPI).
• Learn how to crop your scans before you save them so there isn't additional white space around your photos.
• Know where you're saving these images on your computer.

YOUR COMPUTER OR FLASH DRIVE

• For easier organization, learn how to create a folder on your desktop and call it something like YEARBOOK PHOTOS. Whenever you move images from your camera, put them in this folder.
• Once you upload these images to School Annual Online, move them to another desktop folder called UPLOADED. No more duplicates; no more misplaced images.
• Although many cameras will display as another hard drive on your computer, School Annual Online does not always 'see' this location when you select images to upload. For best performance over the internet, offload your images onto your hard drive before uploading them. Did you remember where you put them?

THE INTERNET

• Yes REALLY! The internet is full of great sites to learn more about digital photography, image resolution, and such.
• Find a copy of your camera or scanner user manual if needed.

A SIMPLE EDITING SOFTWARE (such as Microsoft Photo Editor, most likely found in your Office program files)

• Is that image Gem or Junk? - Not EVERY image you've taken or received from parents has to be uploaded. The more images you have in your library, the more sorting and shuffling you need to do to keep organized. If the image is blurry, dark, or you can't really tell what activity or people are included, then maybe that image isn't a keeper.
• Edit before you upload - School Annual Online has some great effects for your images, but if you have the tools to do any image editing (crop, color balance, sharpen, etc), then do this before you upload. There are many free or low-cost photo editors available online.